In This Article:
Legendary fund manager Li Lu (who Charlie Munger backed) once said, 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital.' So it seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. As with many other companies DistIT AB (publ) (STO:DIST) makes use of debt. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?
When Is Debt A Problem?
Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. Part and parcel of capitalism is the process of 'creative destruction' where failed businesses are mercilessly liquidated by their bankers. However, a more common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.
View our latest analysis for DistIT
What Is DistIT's Debt?
As you can see below, DistIT had kr293.0m of debt, at March 2019, which is about the same the year before. You can click the chart for greater detail. On the flip side, it has kr113.3m in cash leading to net debt of about kr179.7m.
How Healthy Is DistIT's Balance Sheet?
Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that DistIT had liabilities of kr624.7m due within 12 months and liabilities of kr224.0m due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of kr113.3m as well as receivables valued at kr336.9m due within 12 months. So its liabilities total kr398.5m more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.
This is a mountain of leverage relative to its market capitalization of kr495.0m. Should its lenders demand that it shore up the balance sheet, shareholders would likely face severe dilution.
We measure a company's debt load relative to its earnings power by looking at its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and by calculating how easily its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) cover its interest expense (interest cover). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.
DistIT's net debt is sitting at a very reasonable 2.1 times its EBITDA, while its EBIT covered its interest expense just 4.2 times last year. While that doesn't worry us too much, it does suggest the interest payments are somewhat of a burden. We note that DistIT grew its EBIT by 29% in the last year, and that should make it easier to pay down debt, going forward. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine DistIT's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.